In light of Vertigo Books' announced closing, there was some disturbing bit of corporate nonsense going on at Amazon.com this weekend. [Every blog post on this subject will probably start with, "Twitter was all over the news that..."]. Apparently, the online bookstore began removing the rankings of gay-themed books. The company replied that it tries to restrict its "adult" content from appearing in some searches and bestseller lists. Sounds like censorship.

Books that have been zapped by Amazon's censors include books by James Baldwin and E.M. Forster. And, well, the Joy of Sex, Running with Scissors, Rubyfruit Jungle, and Bastard Out Of Carolina. Our former arts editor Mark Athitakis has been been doing a great job following this on his twitter account. Booksquare has an open-letter to Amazon that is pretty great. The LA Times has a more complete list of the suddenly de-ranked books.

It's definitely not a glitch in Amazon's system. Gawker thinks hackers might have played a role in this.

Only a week after fans of Let the Right One In complained that the retail copies of the DVD offered an awful translation of the film's original Swedish, now Best Picture Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire has been released to the masses sans special features.

That's right: The DVD has only -- gasp! -- the movie itself and a couple of trailers. The nerve of Fox Searchlight!

Apparently retailers will be remedying the situation. Amazon offers this message:

DVD Alert: We are aware that special features were missing from a number of Slumdog Millionaire DVDs. Fox has set up a hotline telephone number (1-888-223-4FOX) for those consumers who may have purchased a version that does not contain special features. Upon calling the hotline, these consumers will be able to have their disc replaced for one containing special features. Fox regrets any inconvenience this has caused.

Thank God there's a hotline. Crisis averted!